Method for regulating temperatures.



H. E. GILBERT.

METHOD FOR REGULATING TEMPERATURES.

APPLlCATlON FILED MAR. 9. 3915.

HQ 1 9 1 5 6 6 D d 6 t n 6 t a P INVENTORY METHOD FOR BEGULATINGTEMPERATURES.

meanest.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 5, 119198.

Application filed March 9, 1915. Serial No. 13,297.

1/ '0 all whom 2'25 may concern:

Be it known that T, HARRY E. GILBERT, a citizen of the United States,and resident, of Conshohocken, county of Montgomery, and State ofPennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Methods for RegulatingTemperatures, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a satisfactory means ofcontrolling furnaces and other apparatus requiring relatively hightemperatures, whereby a uniformity in the temperature may be maintainedunder control of thermostatically operated means, which in turnregulates the temperature pro duced by the heating medium employed inmaintaining the heat. v More particularly my invention has for an objectthe collection of a plurality of currents of the heated fluids, whetherof air, gases or vapors from different places in an unitary space andproviding thereby an average mixture which will approximately representthe result of the average temperature of the furnaces, etc., saidaverage mixture being employed to actuate the thermostatic member forcontrolling the supply of gas or other fuel with which the apparatus isheated.

With the above and other objects in view, the nature of which will bemore fully understood from the description hereinafter, the inventionconsists in the novelconstruction of means for regulating temperaturesas hereinafter more fully described and defined in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a sectional plan viewillustrating an oven having my improved apparatus applied thereto; Fig.2 is a front elevation of the furnace, illustrating a modified form ofmy improved apparatus; and Fig. 3 is an elevation illustrating myimproved apparatus as applied to steam boilers.

First referring to the construction illustrated in Fig. 1; this isintended to represent an oven such as an oven suitable for japanning orany other drying or baking operation, and the shape and generalconstruction may be of any of those in common use. 2 represents theunitary heating space between the outer walls and the inner chamber, andthe heat to this space is provided by the gas burner 3 which ordinarilyis located below the compartment and at the bottom of the oven. Gas issupplied to this burner 3 within the oven structure, and they alldeliver into the same common flue or passage 7 so that the thermostaticmember 9 is affected by the average heat of the mixture. In this mannerthe operation-of the valve 5 by the thermostatic member 9 will be inaccurate accord with the requirements of the heating of the oven, andthe temperature thereof will be maintained more constant and accuratethan is possible'where the thermostatic member is not operated by anaverage mixture.

The thermostatic member 9 and the valve device 5 employed in connectiontherewith may be of any suitable type such as is illustrated in myapplication Serial No. 789,025, filed September 10, 1913, or of the typeillustrated in Patent No. 986,760, dated March 14:, 1911, to whichreference is made by way of example. In these thermostatically controlled valves provision is made by an adjusting screw 20 to adjust thevalve piece independently of its operation under the thermostaticcontrol so that the supply of gas may be first regulated to thenecessities of the case, and thereafter the control may bethermostatically influenced.

In the illustration shown in Fig. 2, 2 represents any suitable furnacewhich may be supplied with fuel burners at 3, these latter beingsupplied with fuel by a pipe 4: con

trolled by the valve device as in the case of Fig. 1. In this casesamples of the furnace gases in the unitary spaces are collected by aplurality of fines 8 which deliver said gases as an average mixture intothe bottom ofa main flue or passage 7* which may have outlets at the topas at 10 for permitting a relatively slow escape of the gases to theatmosphere. In this way the radiant heat of the heated mixture acts uponthe thermostatic member, the size of the aperture 10 being a suflicientrelief to retard the flow through the casing. The thermostatic member 9for operating the valve 5 is extended down into the casing or passage 7so that it is affected by the temperature of the conditions of themixture of gases from the different parts of the furnace with thepassage 7. It is manifest that any variations in the temperatureconditions of the furnace at any one or more places will change thetemperature of the average mixture of gases and in this manner cause thethermostatic member to actuate the valve5 to vary the fuel supplied tothe furnace and thereby automatically raise or lower its temperature inaccordance with the requirements. In this particular illustration of myimprovements, the casing 7 is provided with an opening 11 at or near thelower portion of the casing 7*, so that it is .ata lower level than thethermostatic member 9, and said opening is controlled by a valve 11manually operated so that the size of the opening may be ad justed todivert the desired proportion of the mixture through the opening andthereby adjust the operation of the apparatus to suit givenrequirements. By varying the size of the opening 11*, the speed of theflow around the thermostatic member 9 may be controlled, the larger theopening the slower the flow about said member, and vice versa; and thisadjustment of the valve 11 varies the effectiveness of the temperatureof the current of mixture upon the thermostatic member and governs thedegree of temperature of the furnace which is to be maintained. Theadjustment of the valve 11 in this case will take the place of theadjustment of the valve 20 in the case of the a pparatus shown in Fig.1, but as illustrated it may be employed in addition to such adjustmentas it provides a convenient means of changing the normal temperature tobe maintained in the furnace when other conditions necessitate. However,in this apparatus once the predetermined temperature is determined,thereafter the apparatus operates automatically to maintain theconstancy of said temperature. The means shown by way of example foroperating thevalve 11 comprise a pivoted lever 12 to operate the valve,a. link 14 connecting the lever with a crank 13, a transmission gear 15leading to apointer 16 adapted to be moved over a dial 17, and a chainmechanism 18 for operating the pointer, and through the other connectionsv the rank 13. In this Way the operator may readily adjust thevalve 11 to insure the normal temperature desired. Any other suitablemeans may be employed for adj usting the valve 11. v

In the construction shown in Fig. 3, 2 represents the-steam drum of aboiler, the

heat of Whichis supplied by fuel from the pipe 4 controlled by the valve5. In this construction steam is led from the steam drum 2 by'theplurality of pipes 8 which which the steam pipe 7 extends and leads tothe steam main 19. The thermostatic member 9 is arranged within thesteanrpipe 7 and is adapted to operate the control valve 5 as in theother cases. In this instance the average temperature of the steam ismade up from the steam supplied from different parts of the steamgenerating apparatus, and consequently any variations in temperaturefrom one part of the apparatus relatively to temperatures in other partswill not be affected by abnormal irregularities in contrd'l; In thismanner the steam which is leaving the generating plant, being an averagemixture of said plant, will be effective in operating the thermostat tomaintain the constant temperature required for the steam at any givenpressure: While the pipes 8 are indicated as leading from differentparts of the same drum 2, it is manifest that they may lead fromdifferent boilers of a battery constituting the generating plant, if sodesired, as I do not limit myself in any manner to the details of theboiler structure. In this illustration I have indicated the adjustingwheel 20 of the valve as adapted to be operated by a chain 21 extendingabout a sprocket wheel 22, to which a pointer 23 is attached, thepointer being moved over the dial 2% by the chain 25. In this manner thevalve 5 may be adjusted by the engineer in charge, and the extent of theadjustment may-be indicated, but such adjustments are only made when itis desired to arrange for a predetermined normal temperature of theapparatus; thereafter the regulation is accomplished automatically bythe thermostatic member.

From the foregoing examples of the employment of my improved method andmeans for insuring control of the tempera ture of the furnace tomaintain a substantially constant temperature, it will be manifest thatno matter how the temperature may vary at different places about theoven casing or the furnace compartment, producing an average mixture ofthe various currents of heated air or gas and acting upon thethermostatic control devices by the temperature of said mixture willinsure a more positive and accurate maintenance of the constanttemperature predetermined upon and desired. By my improvements therewill be less' liability of abnormal fluctuations in the temperatureacting upon the thermostat than results where the thermostat is simplylocated in'some one place in the oven or receives products of combus-,tion from some particular part of the fur nace, and because of thisthere will be less irregularity in the control of the gas or fuelwhich'is supplied to the furnace, and considerable economy as well asconstancy in temperature will result. In the case of boilers or wherebatteries of boilers are employed in large steam installations, andwhere the temperature conditions are controlled automatically, it isapparent that by collecting samples of the steam from various sources inthe boiler or battery of boilers and making the mixture of said steamact upon the thermostat, the regulation of the heating means of theboiler may be maintained to produce a more constant supply of steam at apredetermined pressure as the temperature is dependent upon thepressure.

I have described my invention with reference to means to control a fluidfuel, and such fuel may be gas or oil, gasolene or other hydrocarbon asfound most desirable for the particular purposes for use. I do notrestrict myself in any regard as to the nature of the fuel which is tobe controlled by the thermostatic device, nor do I restrict myself inrequiring the thermostatic device to directly control such fuel, as thesupply of fuel may be regulated under the control of the thermostaticdevice in any suitable manner desired.

The illustrations of apparatus given are only to be-talren by Way ofexample, and not as limitations of the invention, and the apparatus towhich my improvements are applied would vary according to the specialuses to which the heating medium is adapted.

No claims are made for the apparatus in this application as the samewill form the subject matter of a divisional application.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire toprotect by Letters Patent is: V

l. The hereindescribed method of controlling the temperature offurnaces, which consists of supplying fuel to the furnace heating thecontents of a unitary space thereby, collecting a plurality of separatecurrents of the heated contents previously brought to a heatedconditionby the furnace and providing thereby an average heated mixturetherefrom, thermostatically controlling the supply of fuel to thefurnace inversely in accordance with the variations in temperature ofthe average heated mixture, and varying the thermostatic action incontrolling the supply of fuel by manual regulation to predetermine thenormal average temperature to be maintained in the unitary space by thefurnace.

2. The herein described method of controlling temperatures of a unitaryheated chambered space, which consists in supplying fuel to the furnace,heating thereby the contents of the unitary space, collecting aplurality of currents of the heated contents from distant places in theunitary space and mixing them to provide an average heated mixture,regulating the supply of fuel to the furnace by a valve device,thermostatically controlling the operation of the valve device by athermostatically operated means to regulate the supply of fuel,energizing the thermostatically operated means by varying temperaturesof the average mixture, anddiverting a portion of the current of theaverage mixture away from the thermostatically operated means to retardthe flow of the remaining portion of the current of said mixture incontact with said means.

3. The herein described method of controlling temperatures of a unitaryheated chambered space, which consists in supply ing fuel to thefurnace, heating thereby the contents of the unitary space, collecting aplurality of currents of the heated contents from distant places in theunitary space and mixing them to provide an average heated mixture,regulating the supply of fuel to the furnace by a valve device,thermostatically controlling the operation of the valve device by athermostatically operated means to regulate the supply of fuel,energizing the thermostatically operated means by varying temperaturesof the average mixture, diverting a portion of the cur rent of theaverage mixture away from the thermostatically operated means to retardthe flow of the remaining portion of the current of said mixture incontact with said means, and manually adjusting the extent of thediverted portion of the current to predetermine the temperature to beprovided and maintained by the furnace.

lln testimony of which invention, T hereunto set my hand.

. HARRY l3. GILBERT. Witnesses:

R. M. HUNTER, E. W. SMITH.

